Trump to host Brazil’s anti-gay president Jair Bolsonaro at White House
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro gestures during a ceremony of presentation of new diplomats’ credentials at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, on March 8, 2019. (SERGIO LIMA/AFP/Getty)
Donald Trump has invited Brazil’s anti-LGBT president Jair Bolsonaro to the White House.
The far-right Brazilian leader, who holds extreme anti-LGBT beliefs, will meet with Trump at the White House on March 19, US officials announced.
A statement said the pair will discuss “how to build a more prosperous, secure, and democratic Western Hemisphere.”
They will also “discuss opportunities for defence cooperation, pro-growth trade policies, combating transnational crime, and restoring democracy in Venezuela.”
Bolsonaro, who has described himself as “homophobic and very proud of it,” came to power in 2018 following a groundswell of Trump-style support, despite extreme and frequent attacks on LGBT+ people.
President Jair Bolsonaro: I would prefer a dead son to a gay son
The politician told Playboy in 2011 that he would rather his son die than be gay, saying: “I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I prefer that he die in an accident.”
During his presidential campaign, Bolsonaro also stood by a claim that he would punch gay people if he saw them kissing in public.
Defending the comments, the then-candidate compared gay kisses to “a paedophile’s right to have sex with a two-year-old.”
Jair Bolsonaro, far-right lawmaker and presidential candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), arrives to cast his vote on October 28, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Ricardo Moraes-Pool/Getty)
He told Time: “I do not kiss my wife on the street. Why face society? Why take that into the school? Little children of 6 or 7, watching two men kiss as the government wanted them to do. Is this democracy?”
Gay couples rushed to marry in the country ahead of Bolsonaro’s inauguration, hoping to safeguard their legal status in case the new leader opts to use his powers to attack LGBT+ people.
Bolsonaro’s rise has imperilled the already-fragile status of LGBT+ rights in the country, with warnings about “fundamentalist homosexual groups that are trying to take over society.”
He claimed in a 2013 interview with British actor Stephen Fry: “90 percent of homosexual deaths, they die in drug-related situations, prostitution, or even killed by their own partners.
“I went into battle with the gays because the government proposed anti-homophobia classes for the junior grades, but that would actively stimulate homosexuality in children from six years old.
“This is not normal.”
Bolsonaro shared ‘golden shower’ video
The Brazilian leader this week tweeted a video of a man urinating on another man’s head.
Bolsonaro claimed he was sharing the video on Tuesday (March 5) to “expose the truth” to the people of Brazil, causing #GoldenShowerPresident to trend on Twitter.
Many internet commenters noted the apparent mutual interest of Trump and Bosonaro in golden showers.
